EMH - Should I utilize?

[pdz]

I have always avoided the park with extra magic hours because i have heard they are busier on those days. This trip I am thinking of going to the parks with morning EMH and then using a park hopper to visit another park after an afternoon break at the resort. For those of you that do this do you find the crowds during morning EMH's to be much lighter than on a regular rope drop day? We have never taken afternoon breaks before and am not sure how much time to allow to leave park and comeback. We are going the 1st week of October and I am thinking it might be nice to be out of the parks mid day when it's the busiest and hottest.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Love AM EMH. It's totally worth it, IMO.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

If you hop to another park after the morning hours, you’ll be ok. Personally I like the evening EMH

 

[GBBTomorrow]

We typically do not do AM EMH, mostly because we don't want to get up the extra hour early, but also because the parks seem more crowded. I think there are a lot of resort guests who think they are "supposed to" go to the EMH park and just do it blindly. If you're going to another park after EMH, and don't mind getting up early, then sure, do it!

The way I use EMH is mostly for planning mornings: I look for parks that have PM EMH, and then plan to rope drop that park the following morning. I find it usually works.

 

[Amy11401]

How do they monitor EMH in the evenings so that non resort guests don't just stay?

 

[chris benton]

PM EMH: Typically, the non resort qualifying emh guests are allowed to STAY, but they are asked to scan their mb, or show resort key for attractions.
AM EMh: Non resort qualifying guests are not allowed into the park - unless for an adr.

 

[wisteria1019]

We typically do not do AM EMH, mostly because we don't want to get up the extra hour early, but also because the parks seem more crowded. I think there are a lot of resort guests who think they are "supposed to" go to the EMH park and just do it blindly. If you're going to another park after EMH, and don't mind getting up early, then sure, do it!

The way I use EMH is mostly for planning mornings: I look for parks that have PM EMH, and then plan to rope drop that park the following morning. I find it usually works.

I have been thinking about going to the Park the day after they offer EMH. My logic is that the majority of people would have visited the pay prior. I'm going mid October. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[BrianL]

EMH + Park Hoppers are a winning combination!

 

[pens4821]

We love AM EMH. I don't like getting up that early on vacation, but it's so worth it. You can get so much done in that first hour. We usually spend until 10/11 in that park, then move to another park. it works perfectly.

 

[agavegirl1]

I enjoy EMH when I have park hopper tickets. DH is a morning person but I am not so we don't hit each and every one. I tend to tire out enough to crash into bed by 10PM enough at WDW that EMH is doable for this affirmed "Night Owl". Choose the least crowded park to hop to as crowds pick up in every park in the afternoon.

 

[disneylover102]

If you have a park hopper, definitely use EMH. The EMH themselves with just hotel guests aren't super crowded. It's the combination of hotel guests and non-hotel guests later in the day that can make it more crowded. Also, sometimes it's not that much worse with EMH. Last time we went (it was in August, so it was pretty crowded), we were at the park on 3 EMH days (with 1 park per day tickets) and MK evening EMH (we were there 2 of those days) definitely impacted crowds during the day, but we were there for Epcot morning EMH one day and the walkways weren't packed like they had been at MK and the posted standby wait was 35 minutes when we ate at Sunshine Seasons (the new theater had just opened but it had also been less than 2 months since the new version opened).

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We’ve had good luck hopping in to a park in the evening that had morning EMH. For example, we’ve found bumper to bumper traffic leaving MK at about 8 pm when we are arriving.

We probably did more in those last 3-4 hours than the EMH and rope drop crowd did all day.

 

[slpeters]

We loved EMH--did one a day for a week. I thought the morning ones were more productive but in a weird way the evening ones were more "magical". Particularly with the morning ones there is a sort of domino effect that you benefit from. Because park traffic consistently builds over time in the morning there's a certain tiering logic which most people use to hit the parks in the morning. If you do EMH right you'll be one step ahead all morning and you won't even have to arrive before opening, just right at opening. We FPd the headliners which enabled us to do the other tier 1 rides, largely as walkons while others hit the headliners. Around park opening the other EMHers are moving on to the tier 1s and the non-EMHers are at the headliners--you've moved onto the tier 2, by the time anyone else gets to the tier 2s you're onto the tier 3s and for us by the time anyone got to those it was nap time! Loved it!

 

[NH-to-FL]

When we were staying on site with park hoppers we would almost always use morning EMH. You get a lot done in that first hour. Then we would leave late morning or after lunch for a break/nap. Then decide what to do in the evening.

 

[Kellykins1218]

Morning EMH is awesome. We usually stay until about noon & then hop.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

We always try to go to morning EMH and then usually leave the park by around 11 to go grab lunch somewhere and then relax at the pool, then we'll hop to whichever park we want to go in the evening. Personally think that's the best way to tour, though I have noticed that morning EMH's have seemed busier in the last few years. Perhaps word is getting out that they are a great option?